In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services, Injury Prevention Program, a grant to participate in a multistate project called the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS). The purpose of the Wisconsin Violent Death Reporting System (WVDRS) is to link violent death records (death certificates, police reports, medical examiner and coroner reports, crime laboratories, and perhaps child fatality review teams) from the same event, promote more timely information retrieval, describe in detail circumstances that may have contributed to the violent death, and identify and characterize perpetrators and their relationships to victims. This article describes the development of WVDRS and its importance in understanding and preventing violent injury and death in Wisconsin.